Arizona vs. Boston College, 2013 AdvoCareV100 Bowl: Wildcats run absolutely wild

Manziel in the final three quarters: 19-for-21 for 285 yards, eight carries for 60 yards, five total touchdowns. Duke continued to move the ball offensively, but Manziel almost single-handedly kept A&M afloat in the first half, and the (justifiably) maligned Aggie defense finally began to make some stops in the second.

Average scoring margin for the day’s first three bowls. Hell, we really hadn’t had a good day of bowling since Friday. But then the Chick-fil-A Bowl came around.

Carey had another big day, running for 100+ yards for the 16th consecutive game, and Arizona’s offense thrived on the strength of his efforts. Arizona finished the day with more than 500 yards of offense, easily outpacing a Boston College offense that didn’t get much from Williams and sputtered as a result.

On a side note: Junior was a credentialed media member for this game.

If you ask me, Ken’s catches were way more impressive. That baseball is WAY smaller than a football.

(P.S. Trey -- perhaps allegorically -- had a Mariners contract, postdated to 2012. Probably the smarter move to attend college.)

Williams and Carey won’t be on the field at the same time, but the thought of seeing the two try to outdo one another is one of the more tantalizing prospects of bowl season. Neither team is a world beater, but they’ve both shown signs that they can hang with anyone in the country. Arizona pulled the legs out from underneath Oregon, 42-16, in November, and BC was the only team that gave Florida State an actual game this year, a 48-34 loss at home in Chestnut Hill.

Rankings and records: Both teams finished the 2013 season at 7-5 and outside the top 25. This is the first matchup between these two schools, so history is very much on the line.

Hey, kids, do you like running games? Because I’ve got the game for you ...

Games like this are why bowls still serve as a lovely set of exhibitions. Arizona and Boston College don’t exactly get the opportunity to play each other much. A home-and-home would have all sorts of logistical issues involved -- not exactly friendly to visiting fans.

Former Alabama offensive coordinator Jim McElwain has taken Colorado State bowling for the first time since 2008, going 7-6 and finishing third in the Mountain division of the Mountain West. Out of those seven wins, none came against teams that finished with a winning record, but the Rams have a legitimate star in running back Kapri Bibbs. The sophomore led the nation with 28 touchdown runs this season on fewer than 20 carries per game, and has set school records in rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns and points scored.

Carr is one of the very best quarterbacks in the country, passing for 48 touchdowns and nearly 5,000 yards on the season. The Bulldogs started the year 10-0, with notable wins over Rutgers, Boise State and San Diego State before a dramatic Friday night loss to San Jose State. Fresno State still won the conference, defeating Utah State in the conference title game.

The ACC had 11 bowl-eligible teams this season, with Pitt tying for both the worst overall record (6-6, with North Carolina and Syracuse) and conference record (3-5, with Maryland) among them. The Panthers did beat three other bowl teams this season, with an early-year win over Duke and late-season victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Ralph Friedgen’s final game as Maryland’s head coach came in the 2010 Military Bowl -- the game was also the Terrapins’ last bowl game. Athletic director Kevin Anderson made the change from Friedgen to Randy Edsall, saying he wanted the program to go from “good to great,” and three years later, the Terps get to go to the same place.

AdvoCare (noun) -- A health and wellness company that offers “world-class energy, weight-loss, nutrition and sports performance products.”

AdvoCare V100 Bowl (noun) -- A newly reminted bowl game normally played by an SEC bowl-eligible team and an ACC one. Formerly known as the Independence Bowl. Sadly, the first and last of its kind, as AdvoCare announced earlier this year it would drop sponsorship after 2013. Just call it what you’ve always called it.